eliminating bills - homesteading

[abigalerose]

Hey everyone, I'm new to this forum (and to being self sufficient), and I'm looking for some ideas/feedback.
A little background, I'm moving to a 7 acre farm on the 30th, I raise Golden Retrievers, I have horses, I've had 1 big and successful garden, I have a flock of chickens, and I have a seven month old jersey heifer.
I'm trying to find ways to save money, live off the land, homested, etc. since training horses and raising dogs is my "job" I don't have a lot of income. I also truly enjoy farming and homesteading.
I have a long term plan of having solar panels, honey bees, a green house, etc. but so far my short term/rough plan is to 1. Feed my dogs a raw diet. I've done quiet a bit of research so far and I'm starting to formulate a plan, they need 80% meat (mostly red) 10% bone, and 10% organs (half of that needs to be liver). I plan on going deer hunting, and my dad does as well, and all the deer meat, bone (except supporting bones) and organs will go to the dogs. This will be a large supplier of red meat. One day I'd like to raise some beef calves but this could be a while from now. I can raise Cornish X chickens and rabbits. And then if I need to I can go to local super markets/butcher shops/etc.
I also want to feed myself (mostly) from my farm. I do have a jersey calf but it's gonna be a while before I get any milk from her so I'm thinking after I move I might invest in a couple Nigerian Dwarf Goats. I'm also getting some more chickens (for free!), and I'll have another big garden next year. I could possibly raise a pig or two as well (for myself and/or the dogs).
Now here are some of my thoughts/questions:
I'm thinking I can save all my table scraps (as well as my cousins/roommates) to feed to the chickens, I'll also let them free range. And maybe I'm wrong but I thought I read somewhere that you can give them fresh milk? And in a pinch I can cook their extra eggs for them.
If I have enough scraps/milk that could also go to a pig too, correct?
Can goats eat scraps? Also if I put a bag on my mower and save my grass shavings can I feed that to goats?
And could I hook my deep freezers (because I'm going to need a few) up to a solar panel to cut down on my electric bill?
Please feel free to share any thoughts/opinions/advice.
Thanks for reading!

 

[Mini Horses]

A lot depends on your area -- as you can see. Some sheep or goats go for more/less for the meat market. Bay has been able to begin a market for home grown -- most often this is mostly grass (or all) and most often organic or close, no meds, etc. We used to do cattle that way and always had repeat customers. It can be all you need if you aren't looking to get rich. We met all feed bills, cost of purchase as calves, etc. We made a little and got ours "free" as well as for our 5 kids (blended fam) and our full time farm worker who was provided some. Lot of good pasture to support them.

It's a little like many of our farm "stuff" .... I'm glad to sell eggs to support their feed & have plenty for free at home, 2 kids, some friends on occasion, some to feed other livestock. Happy to raise some chics for sale & butcher. Sell goat kids to help support the does I keep to milk & those I milk to sell for milkers.

If you need/want to actually support your self and your farm then you MUST get more intense. When I raised mini horses, mini donks & Boer goats, you can bet I did it to support the entire farm and all expenses related. My horses were shown nationally and did well. I can tell you they DID support the farm.

Now I am happy for the farm income to be able to support the livestock & their general expenses. It would be nice to "earn" a little more but, that gets back to what "cottage industry" you can support, that supports you. Face it the "farm" can only support what YOU CAN work to produce, grow, harvest & sell -- that includes livestock & other product.

 

[abigalerose]

Thank you for all the good advice! I'll start by saying that I already have 3 horses so I can't exactly wait to get them later! And now I'll give you some more back ground, becuase it may make a difference to some of your advice. Or maybe not. The farm was left to my mom, by her dad. We were also all left some money (hence, why I havent gotten a job yet), I won't say how much money, but I will say that it has had an impact on what I've been doing, farm wise. Now, when it comes to animals grazing, I've got what I like to call an "overflow farm" 2 miles down the road, it's where my grandma and grandpa live (and where I'm at at least 4 days a week), my grandpa has 60 acres and two ponds, all fenced, he use to have a whole herd of cattle, but he sold out to buy a lake house, and then they changed their mind! Now he has 5 cows. And he's not getting more anytime soon (busy with work and renovating their house), and even though I want to keep all my animals at my house, he doesn't mind if I keep some there (horses and cows that is) so long as I take care of them, and since it's not even 2 miles from me that's not hard. So right now my horses and little jersey cow are there. Okay moving on, the 7 acres I'll be living on is all pasture except .5-1 acre, which is wooded. There's some fencing up already. There's 3 collapsed building which means there's a ton of barn wood and tin (yay!) and there's some rolls of fencing that no one ever used. There's a big barn, and a big milk barn (needs a new roof), and the house. Plus a couple more little shabby buildings and a chicken coop.
So my cousin and her boyfriend are moving in with me (4 bedroom, 2 story house, plenty of space) which means the bills (the electric bill) is split in half. Her boyfriend builds fence for a living, which means as long as I have/buy fencing material I get fence built for free. We already put up a section of wood fence and two gates, for only the cost of screws becuase of what was already on the property (no one ever got rid of ANYTHING and it's been in my family for 4 generations).
I talked with my parents tonight and I will probably be waiting on the raw feeding, becuase with only 7 acres it'll be hard to grow enough meat for all my big dogs. And buying that much meat would be through the roof, which is unfortunate becuase it's super beneficial to them (note: they need almost all red meat).
I will potentially still look into raising guinea hogs though, they seem good for a small homestead.
Haven't decided yet what I should do about milk though, my calf is only 7 months. I could do goats (pros: not a lot of space needed, cons: feed costs) or just get an adult dairy cow (pros: LOTS of milk, you don't technically need to buy feed, cons: cost of the cow, space, I've never milked lol) or I could just wait it out and drink store milk till my calf is ready.
A lot of people around here make good money training horses (super rural area), and id only be training 1-2 horses at a time (ive got a half acre I'd keep training horses on and keep them stalled with only a couple hours of turn out, and grain is cheap if you buy from the Amish, etc.).
Let's see, what else...
The dogs. Golden retrievers are my all time favorite dog, and I'm very good at whelping dogs (don't mean to toot my own horn, but toot toot) so I chose to raise goldens, upon researching I got interested in English goldens (another long story for another time) and fortunately/unfortunately they are an EXPENSIVE breed. The start up costs are big (I've put some of my inheritance money towards this) they are also big dogs. But becuase I know people who've raised dogs, I know how to cut corners (without risking the dogs health, I would never do that) and I also don't show my dogs, not sure why, just something I don't have an interest in, which saves me money. So at $2000 a puppy (average) and 7 pups a litter (low average, a lot have 9 or 10), if something goes wrong I could be taking a big loss, but if things go right, well you can do the math. I've accordingly planned for disasters too. I take the dog raising very seriously, and it's not just about money. It was a plan before money ever even came into the picture. I'm going to get USDA licensed and all that jazz for the dog breeding as well, and I know you can write off pretty much everything for taxes, so I'll just have to find a good tax person to help me.
Okay that was a lot of rambling, and I forgot what my point was, and I'm sure I forgot some info too lol, but obviously, for someone who wants to farm, I got very lucky!
And I'm a weird 19 year old, I hate parties

Ohhh, and my dad wants to put the farm in my name, my moms not sure about it right now

 

[Wannabefree]

So now I'm left wondering how it went....Well since this is about eliminating bills thread I paid off a personal loan today instead of letting it play out for another 10 months, and so I saved a hundred or so in interest payments. I'm happy

 

[Wannabefree]

I never pay retail. I can't stand it. I'm retailphobic. I'd rather go without, or make it myself lol, and that reminds me I forgot to get toilet paper....ugh....missed it for $3 a 12 pack with coupons and rebate for Cottonelle. Crap! Literally.

 

[baymule]

OK, I am going to offer some more advice. This is coming from me, 61 and I am talking to you like you are my daughter or grand daughter.

Get a job. You will need money to get your plans off the ground. It will give you ready cash to invest in your farm. A milk cow, dogs, rabbits, few goats, chickens, 2 horses, pigs, and a couple of beef calves all EAT! Seven acres is not enough to support all these animals. You will have to buy feed and hay, and a lot of it. You might want to reconsider getting so many animals and ease into this, to see what works and what doesn't. If you get in over your head right off the bat, then you might get discouraged.

The milk cow, horses, and beef calves need grass, high quality grazing, and a lot of it. Cows and horses consume a lot. Your 7 acres is also wooded, so that doesn't leave much for grazing. Economically speaking, a couple of pigs, a couple of calves to feed your dogs could cost you way more to raise and feed them than just buying very good dog food and augmenting it with products from your own animals. Like I said, ease into this. And what if you don't get any deer? Besides that, JMO, durned if I'd give up the deer meat for dogs!

Maybe instead of calves, you could concentrate on smaller animals. Chickens and rabbits could be the way to go. Get you an incubator and raise your own chicks. Excess roosters go for dog food. If you have pure breeds, you can sell the chicks too. This means that you will have to build breeder pens to keep the different breeds separated. Rabbits reproduce rapidly and can give you a lot of meat in a short time. Both are inexpensive to get started.

Horses are a luxury item. I have three, so I feel qualified to speak on this issue. Two of mine are old, 27 and 29 years old and will die with me. One is unrideable, but she still eats. Horses are a hole in your pocket you dump money in. Period. I am horse crazy, have been all my life, and that will never change. I am not saying not to get horses, but get everything else figured out first. Get your horses after you get settled on which animals you want to raise.

Again, my opinion, but I feel like you are on the right track with the American Guinea Hogs. Buy registered stock. (this is where that job comes in handy) You can sell the best as registered breeding stock, for more money than a feeder pig. These are small pigs, and would be a good fit for your farm. They will graze also, if you have good grass. You might develop customers for the meat, as well. People want good, clean meat from animals that have not been raised in a barn over a lagoon of their own waste.

For building materials, check Craigs List. You can get used tin for cheap and plug the holes. See if there are any roofing tin manufacturers near you, They often have roll end pieces they will sell for less. Find businesses that get shipments in packing boxes made of lumber. Load them up, take them home, take them apart and stack up under cover for building your barns and sheds. Go by places like Lowes and check out the cull rack. They sell reject lumber for half. My chickens don't care if the 2x4's in their coop are crooked. Scrounge. It's fun and you can get some awesome deals on stuff you need.

Fence the whole place in non climb horse wire. (another use for all that danged money you make at your job.....) Use 7' T-posts with 2 strands of barbed wire at the top. This will keep your horses from necking over the horse wire, bending it and messing it up. With this wire, you can keep all your animals IN your property. Then you can cross fence and divide up into pastures, because the grass will have to rest between being grazed.

http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/non-climb-horse-fence-48-in-x-200-ft?cm_vc=-10005

Since your parents don't want the farm, will they put it into your name or let you buy it at the super-daughter-deal?

At 19, you know what you want and you are going for it. Good for you. Sending you a hug. Your dream is real, it is achievable, and you can do this. Consult with a good CPA who can steer you in the right direction as far as taxes go. Pay the fee, it will be good advice than can keep you from making mistakes. A CPA can educate you on the ins and outs of a small farm. Write down your questions, if you try to remember everything, you'll forget to ask something.

Most of all, dig in, get started and make your dream come true.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Gah I want Katahdin sheep now!

Everyone here sells pigs and cows. Fair amount of goats. Hardly any sheep or lamb. I live within a half hour of an Ivy League college with many foreign students... Hmm... I'm going to go research the market for lamb around here!

See how fast plans happen?

 

[Beekissed]

Whoa.. that conversation has about convinced me to get some! I might look into it in the spring. Not sure if I already asked this/if it's been answered, but how many sheep per acre would you say? (Without them ruining the ground or needing a ton of feed)

That's very hard to say without knowing the quality of your pasture and your general weather patterns. Any given year you could have a drought and be stuck feeding hay all year round to give the pasture a rest. Or you could have pasture that is very low in nutrition and unable to support the normal/average stocking rates. Or if you'll be doing rotational grazing(always recommended if you want to keep parasites low).

The usual answer to that is "it depends". Recommended stocking rates are anywhere from 4-15 per acre for sheep....but that's a wide range due to all the mitigating factors one would have to factor in. I've had 3 per acre and felt it wasn't really enough when a hard drought hit, even with good pasture.

When considering stocking rates, it's always, always a good idea to err on the side of too low rather than too high. I'd try 3 per acre sheep at first, realizing that in that second year you'll be supporting an additional lamb crop and breeding ram for a period of time. I'd wait until you get past that second or third year before I'd make any decisions on adding more or even decreasing the stocking rate.

You'll also need a way of separating male lambs on that pasture if you don't castrate(they bring a higher price at market from the ethnic groups if they've been uncut and undocked in any way) as they can start breeding their mamas by the 3rd month of age.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I've walked out on deals (cars mostly) when they couldn't get the interest rate where I wanted it. They'll usually call me back in a couple days and say that their finance guy found me a 'better' deal, lol! My poor DH won't hardly go buy a car with me anymore. That 'do-do' would pay sticker price for a car if I wasn't with him!

 

[sumi]

I'm terrible when it comes to toilet paper. Can't walk past a special offer on those. I remember about 2 years ago, just after we came here, we were out road tripping, exploring a bit. We stopped at a convenience store for a cool drink and a bit to eat… Or that was the plan anyway. I ended up buying about 50 toilet rolls because they had them on at a very good price